The beginning

Where does one begin? How does your journey begin? As I have contemplated writing this blog to chronicle our move to New Zealand from the US I have pondered this. How did this whole crazy thing start?
The best I can figure is that it goes back to my childhood. I have always wanted to travel and my interest in the world was greatly encouraged by my wonderful Grandpa Sabo. He traveled and explored and always told me about his adventures. He was always sure to send me post cards and letters detailing his and my grandmothers travels. (Yes, I am old. There were no texts, emails or skype when I was little. Just the USPS and phone. As in landline!)
So the flames of the love of travel were fanned early. Then when I met Patrick, he had already been in the Air Force for almost 8 years and lived in England for approximately 2 years and visited numerous other places. Early on we discussed moving abroad once the kids had graduated from high school. We even built our house in Meridian, ID with that plan in mind.
But life has a way of sending you on its own path and we took a detour to South East Idaho and have spent three years here.
Our youngest Mackenzie graduated this spring and that brings us back to the original plan. But not in the way you would think. It all started innocently enough. I had a business in Idaho Falls and Patrick had a good job in Blackfoot. Life was pretty ok. Early on in Mackenzie’s senior year we started investigating colleges. Our little big talker was adamant that she wanted to go out of state to college. (more on her later!) So in October I took her down to Embry Riddle in Prescott AZ.
Patrick had lived in Phoenix and one of my best friends was from AZ. I had always maintained that I would NEVER live there. That it just had to be too hot and ugly. My vision of AZ at the time was a vast desert and cactus and no trees and heat. Boy was I wrong. (About Northern Arizona anyway. I never did make it to Phoenix. ) When we hit Flagstaff and I saw all the beautiful trees and mountains I was taken by surprise. It reminded me of my own home town of Ukiah in northern California. You know how some things just stick out in your memory? Well, I distinctly remember driving and talking to Patrick on my cell phone and telling him how beautiful it was (as if he did not already know this) and how I could actually live there. Unbeknownst to me at the time, he immediately got on the internet and started researching.
Even though both of us had good careers going, neither of us was really what you would call happy living where we were. Southeast Idaho is near a lot of beautiful places and has lots of outdoor opportunities but the winters are LONG. The first 12 months we lived here we had snow fall 10 of them. No joke! We were not miserable or hating life, but the thought of something else was not a bad one.
So back to my story. Patrick started searching and broached the subject with me. I was all for it. I knew he was not totally challenged at work and had a lot of goals he still wanted to reach. So time went by and he started job hunting in earnest. With his excellent skill set and experience the job prospect started showing up. By January it became apparent that he was going to have to give notice to his employer. So in the middle of one of the worst economic times, my husband gave notice with NO JOB lined up. Friday, February 12, 2010 was his last day.